A little scrupulosity can be a good thing?
A young man sat among his friends during their high school graduation
ceremony. His parents and family were in the audience with camera's ready to
record his graduation. As he rose and made his way to the stage, he saw his
friends and classmates receive their graduation diplomas. When his turn
came, he received a certificate of participation, not a graduation diploma.
His family was shocked, and he was shattered. For four years he'd been
promoted to the next grade. For four years he thought everything was on
track. No one told him anything was wrong. Now, on what should have been a
day of joy and pride, he and his family were filled with sadness and shame.
What happened?
In other places, students are graduating from high school. As they
enter college though, they find that they can't understand the text books.
Their papers are being torn to pieces over grammar, spelling, sentence
structure, and content. Employers are finding it difficult to find employees
ready to enter the work place. Even in the military, officers are being
given classes on basic English in their basic courses because of the rash of
misspelled words, etc. What happened?
What happened is what has been happening in many parts of the world. Some
are not enforcing the standards that do exist, and in other places, others
are lowering the standards that do exist. In many parts of the US,
educational profiency tests are showing that students are woefully lacking in
basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic. For many, this has
called for them to call for a change of the tests, not a change in the
educational system. If the tests shows that 50% of the kids can't read at
the level they should, the problem is not with the kids or the system, but
the test.
For others, the standards remain, but in order not to offend or damage a
child's ego, they're allowed to continue as though nothing is wrong, until
it's too late. Why? Are we telling our children that they're incapable of
attaining a standard and holding to it? We're not only telling our children
that in education but in life as well. In many states, the sex education
classes are coming under fire. Many want a sex ed class that emphasizes
abstinence, not prevention. Many call this absurd and dangerous. That some
60% of teens (according to some polls) are engaging in sex and therefore we
need to teach them how to have sex while avoiding sexually transmitted
diseases (STD's) as well as pregnancy. Are we telling our kids that they're
too weak, too animalistic to control their sexual impulses? Many say that
it's unrealistic to expect teens to control their sexual tensions until their
wedding night. I wonder how they'd feel if their son's and/or daughter's
were the object of someone's releasing their 'sexual tensions'?
But there is a standard that we are called to hold to.
"You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect"
(Matthew 5:48).
Pretty tough to do, especially when we also read that: "Watch and pray that
you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41).
We are called to perfection. We are called to live a life in accordance with God's will.
But today, we hear of many saying that that's being too hard on ourselves; t hat
we are being far too scrupulous. Basically, the term means to imagine that
something is a sin, when, in fact, it isn't. Or a sin is venial, while one
thinks it's mortal. However, today, many feel that being scrupulous means
that we see anything as a sin. Recently, in the "Today" show, an author said
that even the Pope said that there was no such thing as hell. (I seriously
doubt that he quoted the Pope correctly) And that when we meet God that we'll be
surprised that we worried about anything, worried about sin at all!
"Have fun, do what you like, when you like, how you like. God loves you
too much to punish you."
Now obviously, the opposite can be bad as well. We read how people used to
scourge themselves in atonement for sins. Where 'anything' done in pleasure,
was a sin.
Either extreme is a sin of presumption. Presuming in God's mercy to the effect that we can do as we please
without consequences, and presuming in God's punishment in condemning ourselves over
the smallest of sins? Plain and simple, presumption is a sin.
I heard a homily where the priest recounted a confession he heard from
child. Evidently, the child confesses to adultery. It was obvious that she
didn't understand what adultery meant. But she obviously did something that
caused her distress and guilt. Something she 'defined' as adultery. Maybe
she snuck a cigarette or a sip of Dad's beer. Wrong? Yes. A serious sin?
No. Did she get a correct teaching from her confessor? Or did he
'implicitly' ridicule her for her confession?
Is a "little scrupulosity" a bad thing? I don't think so. Better an
error of commission than omission. I'd prefer to hear that I confessed a sin
that wasn't a sin, than sin and dismiss it.
We all sin, we all fall. Some of our falls are minor, some are major.
Some are habitual. But isn't it better to shoot for a higher set of
standards rather than lower the standards to suit our needs and wants?
We try, we struggle toward perfection. Very few attain it, if any. In
fact, if the lives of the saints are any indication, the closer we come to
God, the more 'scrupulous' we become. Saints who we see as living perfect
lives, considered themselves the worst sinners.
But we're telling our children, and ourselves, that this is an
unattainable goal, an impossible standard. For us, it is, but not for God.
Therefore, we 'work' toward that goal of perfection.
"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in
my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for
his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).
"Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I
pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should
be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).
If we don't try to holds to these standards, are we truly doing as God
wants? Or are we doing what we want?
"They all look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ"
(Philippians 2:21).
So, working toward the high standards God has given us, we know our
weakness and acknowledge that.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 John 1: 8-10).
So, we rely on the Lord to forgive us, strengthen us, and help us attain
our goal.
"Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in
Him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His
sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that if possible I may attain
the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press
on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brethren, I
do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those
of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise
minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we
have attained" (Philippians 3: 8-16).
So, with this new year just about three weeks old, let us strive toward perfection. Not relying on
ourselves, but God. Not to our interests, but God's. Let us make a
resolution to strive to be perfect, as our Father is perfect. Working out
our salvation with fear and trembling and hoping in His love and grace to
bring us to our goal. Perfect love and peace with God in Heaven.
Pax Christi, Pat
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